“It’s actually a huge relief,” Chris Froome says on a gentle evening in Harrogate as he sits on the deserted patio of Team Sky’s plush hotel. We’re agonisingly close to the start of this year’s Tour de France but the defending champion finally seems able to relax after some of the most testing weeks of his career. Froome sits alone with me, for he has no need to be minded by a press officer or media fixer, and the normally tense last encounter on the eve of a brutal and controversial race eases with the fading sunlight.

The opening two stages, beginning on Saturday, are being held in Yorkshire and even genteel old Harrogate is immersed in Le Tour fever. For Froome, however, the nervy wait before battle is blunted by the certainty he will soon be consumed by racing again. “It’s been difficult and nerve-racking, especially after I crashed at the [Critérium du] Dauphiné a few weeks ago,” Froome says as he glances down at his recently battered but now glowing and strikingly lean frame. “I wasn’t quite feeling like myself after the crash and so it’s a big feeling of relief. I’m here now. I’m fit, I’m healthy and I’m ready to go.’

Froome looks up and smiles. His stirring statement of intent is, as always, said quietly in an accent which is a soft blend of his Kenyan and South African background. His place at the head of Team Sky, ahead of Bradley Wiggins, is now so secure that Froome no longer has to spend much time reflecting on his rivalry with the 2012 Tour winner. Froome is more absorbed by his looming contest against Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali.

There is no let-up in Harrogate. On Wednesday afternoon, facing reporters, Froome still looked upset. “It was shocking to get the news about Daryl this morning,” he said. “I know him really well and he was a team-mate of mine at Barloworld. It’s always harder when you’re friends with someone. I know Daryl’s character and he’s always been very outspoken against doping so it’s a big shock to me. I don’t know if it’s something he can resolve or if it’s 100% definite.”

When Froome is alone again, out on the patio, the pain embedded into his own story emerges differently. Froome had texted Impey in the morning, stressing his shock and hope that the doubts can somehow be answered, but he knows enough about the bitter truth of doping and cycling that he can only really talk for himself. Froome might be unfailingly polite and even charming but there is a hard edge to his character. You do not become the first cyclist born and raised in Kenya to win the Tour de France, having moved to Europe six years ago as a complete unknown, without having an extraordinary will.

“I guess that’s always a possibility,” Froome says with a wry raise of his eyebrow. “But when it comes to that kind of confrontation and aggression, relating to anti-doping, I understand the reasons. I can sympathise with people who are angry about the past and why they seem doubtful when a guy rides away from all the others. I get that.”

Froome is far more hurt by the lingering reaction to his use of a TUE which helped him win the Tour of Romandie in early May. He remembers his eyes brimming as he turned to his fiancee, Michelle Cound, and said: “Fuck – what have I done wrong?” Froome nods when asked again if he really was close to crying. “Yeah, certainly. When I saw the anger and the way journalists had written about it so they could turn it into a doping story really hurt me. The fact that I’d been ill in a race was ignored – as was the fact that it had been documented even before Romandie.

“I’d made it clear before that I had issues with my lungs and I’d been forced to miss racing Liège-Bastogne-Liège. It was touch and go whether I would race Romandie. I did the prologue and I was coughing like a dog afterwards. My lungs started closing up. For me it was 100% a medical decision.’

Froome sounds more hurt than angry that the procedure, with permission to use the TUE granted by the UCI, undermined his integrity. “The Team Sky doctors applied for it. It was above board. Everything was transparent. For that to be then turned into a story about doping? That really hurt me – especially when I’ve got such strong feelings against doping.”

Was it the most difficult period of his career? “I think so,” he says. “In the past people have said my performances are questionable. In a way that’s a bit of compliment. I’m riding so well my performances are being questioned but I’ve never before had people come out and say to me: ‘You are doping because of this.’ It was really hard. I was receiving medical help to get me through the race. It was about trying to manage my asthma. So it was distressing for me.

“It’s not like in the past where riders could abuse the TUE system. This was the first TUE I’ve had while racing and we had to do tests to prove that my respiratory levels were not where they had been previously. It wasn’t just a case of saying, ‘Oh, this guy is sick.’ Hold on. How is he sick? Where’s the evidence? I hope that control applies to all people with TUEs.”

Would he use a TUE again during the Tour? “If I go down the same path it will be because the medical team have recommended it. As long as all the rules are followed and processes are adhered to I don’t see any problem.”

Froome makes a small but telling point when discussing the view that he gets more flak than Contador. “I see it as a symptom of the position I’m in. Maybe if someone else is in the yellow jersey coming into the last days of the Tour we might see them under similar pressure. My philosophy is to try to be as transparent as possible. I’ll answer the questions. Contador handles it differently. His team [Tinkoff-Saxo] have gone into press conferences and said there can be two questions about doping and then we’re walking out. It makes life simpler for them. But I think it’s best to talk about [doping].”

Beyond the perennial questions he has to confront, Froome’s preparations have been blighted by his crash during stage six of the Dauphiné. Did he feel his Tour defence might be in jeopardy? “Definitely. I could tell it was bad when I tried to ride back to the peloton. And then the week after the Dauphiné I was nowhere near my usual numbers in training. It was hard and frustrating because I was in great form. I’d ridden arguably the best prologue of my life, winning by eight seconds, and then I beat Contador in the mountain-top finish. I felt so ready. And then the crash came.

“But I’m in a good place now. I’ve done some big training rides these last few days and I’m where I need to be. But given that this is a three-week race it might be good to ease myself into it a little more. Hopefully I’ll be fresher for the third week as I haven’t had a massive workload.”

The race between Froome, Contador and Nibali could make this the most riveting Tour in years but Froome takes fresh belief from the way he beat the Spaniard during the mountain stage of the Dauphiné. “I hoped to distance myself from Alberto but the climb wasn’t as steep as I expected. He stayed on my wheel every time I attacked. So he was there the last six kilometres but he couldn’t pass me. I did all that work with him being protected on my wheel and, still, he couldn’t beat me.

“But Contador will keep racing until the very end in Paris. Whether it’s a crosswind on a flat or a descent in the rain he’s going to be racing hard. He’s definitely ready. It’s good for the race, the spectators and the sport. Nibali is quite similar to Contador. If he sees an opening he’ll go for it. I just hope we keep the sportsmanship they showed on the Dauphiné. When I crashed they neutralised the race to allow me to come back. It would have been easy for them to take advantage but they didn’t. Cycling, despite the doping, has a rich history of sportsmanship.”

Chris Froome and Team Sky colleagues ride Buttertubs Pass, part of stage 1 of the 2014 Tour De France route. Photograph: Simon Wilkinson/REX

But it could be tested – especially on the cobbles on stage five. They’re using nine sections of Paris-Roubaix and I don’t see anyone waiting for anyone else if you crash or puncture on the cobbles. That’s part of cobble racing. What scares me is the race to the cobbles. It’s like we’ll be doing a bunch sprint to get to the first section of the cobbles because it’ll be crucial to be near the front so you avoid crashing into anyone who punctures. But I was pleasantly surprised how I felt on the cobbles when we did recon a few weeks ago. I felt good. But, yeah, anything can happen so it’s going to be a good day to put behind us.”

Froome is careful not to make any claims that he is the Tour favourite. Instead, he says: “I can take a lot of confidence from the fact that my time trial is a lot stronger than my GC [general classification] contenders. With such a long time trial at the end they’re going to have to have a very decent buffer if they’re going to beat me. I know I have a very good chance with a really strong team behind me. It’s a much stronger, more experienced and better-balanced team than last year.”

There is no need for Froome to spell out why he wants his trusted friend Richie Porte, rather than a potentially disgruntled Wiggins, riding at his side. “Richie could make the podium himself. He’s going better than I’ve ever seen him before and he won’t have to sacrifice himself for me like last year. I think our team will get Richie safely into the mountains and then you’ll really see what he can do.”

The prospect of winning, with his closest ally on the podium, lights up Froome’s face as darkness creeps across Harrogate. Froome rides for Britain, and he has distant roots in this country, but he is an African. He relives some of his earliest memories and does not know whether to laugh or look ashamed when he remembers how, in Kenya as a boy, he used to steal baby rabbits from the local kindergarten in order to feed them alive to his two pythons Rocky and Sandy. In the end he admits that he had to develop that ruthless streak in his boyhood. It has taken him this far. “There’s a beautiful rawness about growing up somewhere like Kenya. As a child you’re exposed to more of the real world. You learn to become independent. It helped make me who I am.”

Harrogate is a long way from Kenya but Froome looks genuinely animated in his new surroundings. “The way people in Yorkshire have embraced the Tour is extraordinary. I’d never been here before we came up for recon. People had told me about Yorkshire and the beautiful countryside and I’d been, ‘Yeah, yeah…’ But once we got out on the roads I was blown away. This is just a mecca for cycling. It’s stunning out there.”

Last year, on the Champs-Elysées, after he had just won the 100th Tour de France, Froome promised: “This is one yellow jersey that will stand the test of time.” This year, starting in Yorkshire, Froome will endure two different races – both on and off the bike. The second, against doubt, will be much harder and more tangled. But, despite the spitting and the carping, Froome is going to try to win both battles.

“I wouldn’t say it’s any easier defending it given the increased pressure,” Froome says, “You feel much more under the magnifying glass. I’ve felt it a lot more this time than last year but it depends how you take it. I see it as part of my role in this incredibly privileged position. I’m ready to race.”

This weekend the Tour de France descends on Yorkshire. Up to a million spectators are expected, with millions more watching on TV. But how many of them know a maillot jaune from a bidon? And why won't Wiggo be riding? Helen Pidd explains all